


Escape the Heat

by hamjay



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Lian loves her dads, M/M, RedFam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26078347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamjay/pseuds/hamjay
Summary: Jason, Roy, and Lian do what they can to beat a heat wave in Gotham, and look out for the folks in Crime Alley during a blackout.
Relationships: Roy Harper/Jason Todd
Comments: 8
Kudos: 104





	Escape the Heat

**Author's Note:**

> Been hot out here so this is fully self indulgent.

It was so hot that for once Jason wasn’t the only one loving a cold shower. Lian’s hair seemed constantly damp with either sweat or a recent cold dunk. Roy’s too.

New Jersey in mid August threatened an average of triple digits, the thermometers licking the underside of 100 like flames from Hell. Gotham, with her stone and steel, was a heat island cradled inside the profile of the East coast like a blazing eye and the temperatures there rocketed past 100 and stayed there for far too long. Eventually the city simply couldn’t take the strain and the energy conglomerate that regularly struggled to keep up with a chaotic town like Gotham, went bust. Blackouts were implemented, and since it was the fat cat investors keeping the electric company afloat, it certainly wasn’t going to be their penthouses losing power in a terrible heat wave.\

It was East End and other districts like it that took the brunt of the problem. East End, with it’s povertous and working class Crime Alley, Bowery, and other neighborhoods, was plunged into darkness. “It’s always been that way, since I was kid,” Jason explained to Lian. They were laid out on the living room floor, on the wood that wasn’t covered by the rug under the couch. It was the coolest surface in the apartment now after two days without electricity for air conditioning. “When Gotham has a problem they always take a cheap shot and screw over Crime Alley.” Nevermind that they lived in Gotham Village nearby and weren’t technically in East End, they’d still been caught up in some rolling blackouts. 

“That’s sick,” Lian lamented. “I wish somebody would cut them some slack.”

“At least Bruce is working on it,” Jason pointed out. “He texted me this morning. He’s got a meeting with the board today and wants to lend Gotham Electric some engineers and lend them money.”

“I thought the investors were the problem?” she asked but it only took a moment for her to come back with the answer. Smart as a whip, Jason thought to himself. Always had been, and becoming a teenager hadn’t slowed her down at all. “B wouldn’t help them unless they turned on the power for East End, huh? Wish there was something we could do, too.” 

Jason smiled softly, tilting his head to see her from where he lay on his back, their arms and legs spread out like starfish. “Just look out for everybody as best we can, like we’ve been doing,” he said. “Unfortunately, a heat wave is one thing we can’t fight with our fists. You wanna go out again tonight?”

“Yeah, I really liked going yesterday.” Jason smiled at that. Roy came out to join them on the floor, having been cooling off in the shower, and he traded places with Lian for her turn.

Roy splayed himself out, wearing only his boxers, and stretched his arm to brush Jason’s fingers with his own. “I just hope they don’t shut the water off too,” Roy sighed. “It's the last thing keeping me from melting away and leaving you with a puddle for a husband.”

“Eh...I’d mop you up and wring you out into a nice cold drink,” Jason said, not sounding too worried for Roy. Then he turned more serious. “A cold shower is probably the last thing keeping some folks alive right now. Old folk...” He felt Roy pinch his fingers. “Lian wants to go out again tonight. You up for it? I think it’s a good idea. I don’t want to wear my armor again though...I think that vest will be enough. I got so hot in the full armor yesterday.”

“Yeah, okay. Me too. Let’s suit up once she’s out of the shower.” The two men laid there conserving their energy and when Lian had come out of the bathroom the three suited up (lightly) to go out in the neighborhoods. Roy was in his usual armored red vest, perfectly comfortable with his arms exposed. Jason resorted to the style only out of necessity. But once they’d gotten dressed Roy squeezed his husband's bicep, giving him a wink. “Hey handsome. Y’know, that’s not a bad look.” His hand left to slide over the chest of the black armor.

“Looks better on you,” Jason insisted, letting Roy see his eyes flicker down to the tattoos on Roy’s strong arms. Arms sure and steady, drawing back a bowstring to perfection, every time. “Take Lian up the North route and let’s meet on top of the Denny’s in three hours.” Roy nodded. They met for a kiss, soft and sweet. It was Jason’s turn to hold Roy by the arms, feeling just too warm to touch him more than that. Then they pulled away and Jason pulled on his red helmet.

The sun, hellishly toasting Gotham with it’s last rays for the day, was sinking closer to the horizon. Night time was the only relief from this horrid heat when the breeze coming off the harbor turned cool and dipped the temperature by 10 blessed degrees by midnight. But it would leave the streets in darkness.

The trio, Arsenal, Red Hood, and a teenaged Speedy, split two ways for the evening loop through East End. Roy and Lian went Northward and Jason covered territory South, with a route to swing him back around to them and their meeting place. The motorcycle ride whipped a breeze up Jason’s bare arms and made him shiver with relief. It was hot inside of his helmet, but at least the filter made the air feel fresh. He didn’t dare take it off yet. Without his usual full body get up he worried that he wouldn’t be recognized in these neighborhoods without the signature red helm.

Instead of looking for trouble makers, they made a few calculated stops to meet with residents who might need help with the blackout. Jason’s first stop was at Leslie’s clinic. It was dark and closed since it had no power like everything else on the block, but when he slipped into the office Jason saw some signs that Leslie had been there that day. She’d left a note for him, a short list of addresses that might need a visit from the Red Hood during the heatwave. All of them were close by so Jason made the rounds. 

The first visit was to a foster home. Jason gently tapped on the glass of the open apartment window. Through it he heard the sounds of shouting children. Nothing seemed unusually wrong, the kids were likely just cranky from the heat and the darkness they were forced to endure. A middle aged woman with a toddler in her arms emerged from the darkness inside and came up to the window.

“Dr. Thompkins said you might come.” She was looking red in the cheeks and eyes. The toddler she carried was clinging to her and didn’t make a sound.

"Are you Kendra?" She nodded. “How can I help?” Jason asked, sliding one leg over the windowsill until he sat half inside and half out.

“I need food for the kids but the food pantries are empty.” A common complaint they’d been getting all week. Jason nodded. “And we need ice...I’m so worried about the kids getting hot. This one’s been awful quiet, too.” Kendra shifted the toddler. “He’s drinking lots of water, but I just don’t know...”

Jason removed his glove. “Can I...?” he asked and Kendra nodded and stepped close enough for Jason to reach out his bare hand and feel the kid's neck and head. “Warm…” Jason touched the pale chest peeking from the wrinkled shirt with the back of his knuckles. “But he’s still sweating so that’s good.” Jason put the glove back on, feeling a little relieved. “Any vomiting?” Kendra shook her head. “Then they’re okay right now. Keep checking that they’re sweating and if they start getting sick or pass out you bring em to the hospital, okay?” 

“Hood, I can’t afford…” Jason was already pulling a couple cards out of his pocket to hand over and Kendra looked at them cautiously. “Wayne…?”

“Wayne Gotham Outreach has a relief fund ready...it’s real easy to get, it’s for anyone needing help this month ‘cause of the heat. The info is on there, and there’s extra cards you should give to your neighbors or something.” Jason watched as Kendra read the small card in the dim light. “I’m gonna have ice and food and flashlights delivered here tomorrow, can you wait that long?” he asked.

When Kendra looked up she was smiling, albeit tiredly. “Yes, we’ll make it. Thanks Hood.” Jason nodded to her in parting and climbed up to the roof and found the sun had totally set. On his phone, he entered Kendra's address for Gotham Outreach to deliver her supplies tomorrow. Jason was using a back door to the program Tim had given him and it was coming in great use this week. Outreach would already be making free relief deliveries to East End and Jason was simply adding to the schedule folks who may not be aware of the impromptu service, and spreading the word. 

The neighborhoods were eerily quiet and dark. No street lamps or shop signs lit the blocks and no lights glowed through apartment windows. Only a few cars drifted through the streets, stirring up wayward plastic bags and dust.

Red Hood made the rest of his stops this way using Leslie’s list. He wanted very badly to take off his helmet and let the breeze cool his sweaty hair, but it was best to keep it on when he visited folk like this, they could recognize him in a moment by the red helmet and didn’t have to guess at the intentions of a stranger. Like Kendra, everyone he visited had that red tint on their cheeks. Jason checked babies for heat stroke, assisted elderly with relief supply orders, and generally made himself known to the neighborhood and collected their needs. Red Hood wasn’t going to abandon them in the dark.

His route turned back around and Jason met up with Arsenal and Speedy who had been doing the same routine. On the Denny’s rooftop where they met Jason finally pulled off his helmet and gloves and ran his hands through the sweat slick black curls.

“You guys been drinkin’ water?” he asked, taking a seat next to Lian who was catching her breath and a little speechless from the exertion in the heat. Jason produced a water bottle that he’d strapped on his belt, and had refilled a couple times throughout the evening, and handed it to her. Lian gratefully took it and took a long drink. “Arsenal?”

Roy was leaning against a brick wall. “Yeah, I’m good. Been sharing my camelback with her. You have any trouble?” he asked.

“Not really. You?”

Before Roy could tell the story Lian took the bottle away from her mouth to say “saw some guys looting and kicked their butts.” Her arms gestured around like she was blocking punches or shooting her crossbow. Jason pat her on the shoulder, giving a smile. By the tone of her voice he knew it must have gone well. “Dad scolded em pretty bad too.”

“Well I could understand if they were stealing water, but they were stealing booze instead. So I told them what I thought about their choice of hydration.” Roy shrugged and Lian snickered. 

“And by scolded I mean he left them tied up for the cops.”

“Hey, we left them a water bottle each. I’m beat, I’m ready to go home,” he said and tucked the mouthpiece of his camelback between his teeth to drink from. 

Jason got up to his feet and Lian followed. “Want to ride home on the bike with me, princess?” Lian agreed enthusiastically, already anticipating the breeze in her long black hair. 

“I guess I’ll go on foot,” Roy sighed dramatically. They were already getting off the roof. "Save some cold water for me!" he called down to them.

"That's not how the water works and you know it!" Jason shouted back. He stashed his helmet and loaded onto his bike with Lian behind him. She held on to his sides with her hands but otherwise kept a space between them which was perfect for catching some wind as they started out onto the street. 

They took their time and went the long way home, prolonging the time they could spend with the wind rustling their hair and drying their sweat. The ride took so long that Roy beat them home by one minute. He was stripping and leaving a trail of armor and spandex behind him on the way to the shower. “He beat us, Jay!” Lian shouted, seeing the evidence that Roy was going to be hogging the first shower. Jason tossed his head back and laughed as their daughter ran down the hall. Roy squealed as he was chased, the bathroom door slammed, then Lian pounded on the door. “Da- _ ad _ !” she whined. Jason shook his head because he could hear some exaggerated maniacal laughter coming from his husband, and the sound of the shower turning on. “You snooze, you lose, buttercup!”

“Lian honey, come help me,” Jason called when Lian’s whines turned to threats concerning the preemptive eating of Roy’s favorite snack foods. A teenage groan preceded her appearance. Seeing that Jason had chucked off his armor and walked around only in his leggings, she decided to take some of her own sweaty costume off and add it to his heap. Jason was in the closet and wrestling the futon mattress out. Coming over in her spandex shorts and shirt, Lian grabbed the corner at the bottom and got it sliding. “Great. Okay, go get the fan out of your room,” he said once they had the whole thing out of the closet and Jason could easily handle it from there. 

“But there’s no electricity to plug it into,” she reminded him as if they weren’t standing in a completely dark apartment except for the battery powered lantern on the coffee table. 

Jason carefully maneuvered the futon around the couch. “I’m gonna drag out dad’s generator from his workshop,” he explained. Lian nodded, confirming his plan, then she walked off into the dark to go feel around her room for her box fan. While she was gone Jason rolled up the thin futon. He climbed through the open window and onto the fire escape, and dragged the bed through behind him. It wasn’t easy work, especially in the heat. Jason was dripping sweat, however the air outside was substantially cooler than the hot box of the apartment, and a breeze filtered through the buildings to tickle the sweat on his neck now and then. The futon got stuck about halfway and Jason let go to lean on the railing and catch his breath, wiping sweat from his eyes. They had this extra mattress for visitors like Stephanie and Cass, or Damian when they crashed at their place. Now that Lian was older some of her friends would sleep over on it, or teammates from the Titans. 

Movement in the dark on the inside of the window revealed Roy. “Need a push?” he asked. Together they dislodged the futon fully and Jason climbed up a step on the escape to let it unravel. It was big enough to cram the three of them, but the iron grate fire escape wasn’t exactly roomy so the mattress curled up at the edges like a sad taco when it couldn’t flatten out completely. “She’s in the shower now,” Roy announced while Jason climbed back through the window. In the dim light he could see Roy’s hair was wet once again and he stood classically dressed in only a pair of boxers. “You got a plan, cowboy?”

Jason huffed in amusement, hands on his hips. “Yeah. It’s way cooler outside now, what with the breeze coming off the harbor. I can’t take another night sweating to death in the bedroom...and I want Lian to get some rest.” 

Roy lovingly pet a hand down Jason’s shoulder then withdrew it to comically shake off the sweat he’d collected on his palm. “Ew. Yeah that sounds good to me. She mentioned something about my generator?” Together they hauled it from the workshop. Or rather, Jason hauled it out and Roy held the light so he could see what he was doing. Roy was going to help but Jason insisted he could do it, since Roy had finally cooled off for a while, regardless that there was sweat blooming on his freckled skin already. They put the generator in the living room and ran the fan on the extension cord out to the escape so that even when the breeze didn’t reach them they would still have some air moving over their sweaty bodies. “You’ve done this before, huh?" Roy said knowingly.

“Yeah,” Jason sighed, sitting on the steps above the mattress that led up to the next floor. “Not my first summer blackout.” It was obvious he was annoyed. But he smiled to himself suddenly and leaned back, elbows propped on the step above. Jason flicked his chin to get slick bangs out of his face. Roy cocked his hip, checking Jason out. His bare chest and neck were sweat slick. “I was laying out on the ‘scape one night with my mom and her friend, like this, and the kids on the floor below me were sleeping just down there.” Jason pointed to the platform below them and Roy glanced down. He imagined a whole building putting aside their differences just to share the cool air on the fire escape. “I spent all night with my face pressed against the grate so we could whisper to each other.” Jason’s reminiscent chuckle was like an angel’s melody to Roy. “Saw a few people set up like this tonight while I was out.” 

Lian appeared in the window so Jason got up, ready for his turn in the shower. “Will you guys throw a sheet on the futon?” he asked then slipped away to take a freezing shower in the darkness of the bathroom. Since he was the last one he felt like he could take his time, and Jason needed it because of the extra work he’d done to get the bed set up. He stayed there until he was shivering. Jason toweled off and dressed in a pair of Roy’s boxers and a thin tank top he had blindly felt for in the bedroom. The generator was humming away in the living room when he padded out. 

But the night wasn’t quite as dark as he’d left it. Jason paused, a smile rising out of him from his toes all the way to his ears. He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck, shaking his head in sweet disbelief. How was it possible for them to surprise him anymore? With their antics and their big beautiful hearts and minds... Roy and Lian could make some of the greatest magic happen in his life. Jason started shuffling along again, over to the window. He planted his hands on the windowsill and stuck his upper body through the opening to get a good look at their additions.

A sheet was fitted to the futon, but another had been tied up to the platform above them and hung like a floating white curtain on one side of their little set up. The sheet provided the illusion of privacy, but also reflected the soft multicolored lights from a string of Christmas lights they’d wound around the railing and draped from the next floor. It felt like a dream, like they were the only ones left in the whole dark city. The police scanner had been brought out and plugged in with the fan and it chattered quietly. Sure, they weren’t patrolling tonight, but if there were any freak emergencies then they’d know about it, they weren’t completely cut off. 

“You two…” Jason sighed happily, announcing his presence, and climbed through the window. The futon took up the whole floor out here so he carefully stepped over Lian who was laying in the middle. Roy was sitting up and checking his phone which was also charging from the generator.

Lian popped up once Jason had cleared her and sat on her other side, wearing a big loose T-shirt and shorts. “Do you like it?” she asked. Jason leaned in and wrapped an arm around her. Lian tucked into his half hug like a puzzle piece.

“More than you know, princess,” he promised and kissed Lian’s black hair. Jason gave her an extra squeeze to punctuate the hug then let her go. “You comfortable?” he wanted to know. Lian hummed “yes” and laid back down. Jason felt suddenly exhausted and followed her down. Before he could decide how he wanted to cram himself into the space left on the futon, Lian grabbed his arm and pulled it out to use as a pillow. He chuckled to himself. “We can get your pillow y’know.”

“This is perfect,” she insisted and settled her head on his bicep and shoulder. Lian’s damp hair tickled at first then it felt refreshing. Jason shifted a little until he was comfortable while keeping his arm pinned under his girl. His hand, outstretched, landed on Roy’s knee and Jason smiled when he felt his husband’s hand come down to settle on top of his. His fingers played with Jason’s idly for a while, spinning the wedding band. Jason gazed up at the dreamy lights around them. The quiet chatter of the radio replaced the odd silence of the neighborhood. Eventually Jason just couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore and only drifted on the feeling of Roy’s hand holding his, and their daughters head pillowed on his shoulder.

When Roy shifted to lay down, done checking for updates on his phone, he made sure to keep Jason’s hand in his. Roy lay on his side facing the other two, their joined hands up by his chin. “Not too bad out here,” he said through a yawn. Lian didn’t respond and Roy smiled when he realized she’d already fallen asleep. 

“Especially since you decorated,” Jason mumbled back. Roy watched as the sheet swayed in the breeze from the fan as if it were in slow motion. 

“It was all her.” Roy let go of Jason’s hand just long enough to brush some of Lian’s hair off her cheek. Then he returned it to Jason’s and tilted his chin to place a little kiss on his knuckles. “I love you. Thanks for getting us out of the heat.” Roy closed his eyes too. Jason didn’t respond and Roy figured he was slipping off to sleep. He followed soon after. 

In the morning it was back to the struggle of keeping cool. But for the rest of the week-long blackout they found themselves always on the fire escape come nightfall. Eventually the heat abated, Wayne Enterprises got the feet back under the energy company, and it was back to business and patrol as usual. But for that week of the summer it had been horrible boiling days and sweet cool breezy nights on their little escape. 


End file.
